The Minecraft EULA
by YourLocalMudkip
Summary: A short story on Minecraft's EULA, and how it's affecting Minecraft itself. Originally posted on the Mineplex Forums. Actually a K rated story, for once. One of my shortest stories.


The EULA

A story by Mudkip

This story has been edited so it can be shown to any Minecraft server without advertising.

Note – Sorry if it goes from present tense to past tense, or vice versa. I'm not that good at writing.

Also, when referring to "I", it is from the perspective of a Mojang employee, in my perspective. What I see going on in the office about the EULA.

Yes, I know Dinnerbone did the EULA thing. Again - This is how I see it.

We never meant for this to happen. Or perhaps we did. We are the only ones who know. We can't tell you.

The EULA. The players have been raging at us since we started enforcing it. When was that? I think it was last month. June. The 12th. June 12th.

June 2013

"Are you sure, Jeb? We don't really need the money right now," I asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. We can't have people running off making money off of OUR game!" Jeb replied.

"Well, won't the players get mad?" I asked.

"No. We already have a lot of players. We'll always have a fanbase," Jeb says flatly, whilst staring off into deep space.

"Look at the original End Users Licensing Agreement that Notch created. He said that you could do anything with it, except for the copyright stuff," I say.

"Notch doesn't really own Minecraft anymore. I do. I can do whatever affects Minecraft at any time. We said the EULA could change at any point, right?" Jeb says. I swear I almost saw an evil glare.

"How will we do this though? A lot of the servers might shut down, and then Minecraft Multiplayer will be gone for good," I ask.

"We'll release our own servers. Call it Minecraft Realms. We can use it as a sneak attack, and then throw the EULA at them," Jeb replies.

"I guess we could do this," I say. I hesitate when I say the words.

"Good. We'll start tomorrow. We'll have an alpha to get players intrested. Only a hundred players, and the YouTubers," Jeb says.

Fast Forward to… what is it, the update that changed the world? Minecraft 1.7. Let's fast forward to May 2014.

May 2014

"Sir, Minecraft Realms is almost ready. We should now begin testing in Sweden," I say.

"Good. We can finally start rolling in the EULA changes," Jeb replies. Again, I feel like he's giving me an evil glare. Like the last time he did it, I still can't tell what it is.

"Sir, should we release it as Minecraft 1.7.7?" I ask him.

"No. We will release it next month. We will release it as Minecraft 1.7.7, 1.7.8, and 1.7.9. We'll roll out a 1.7.10 if there's still a few bugs," Jeb replies.

"Okay, sir," I say. I think this is a bad idea, but whatever Jeb says, goes.

June 2014

Okay, now let's fast forward to when Owen talks about Server Monetization. June 11th, 2014. The day before it was posted.

"Sir, the public already knows about the EULA. What should we do?" I ask Jeb.

"Tomorrow, we will release a statement about the EULA. It'll say what people can and can't do," Jeb says. "Finally! I will be able to get money from both Minecraft Realms and Minecraft itself! I'm going to be rich!"

"Sir, I think its best that the author not describe you like that, as he probably does not want to get yelled at or sued," I say.

Wait, am I supposed to be breaking the 4th Wall? No? Okay, sorry. Moving on.

"Who should write the post? If you write it, you'll get a lot of hate mail. If I write it, I'll get the hate mail or nobody will read it. Dinnerbone is busy with the Minecraft Snapshots. Who should make the post?" I ask.

"Owen," Jeb says quietly.

"Yes, sir?" Owen replies, with little hesitation.

"Could you please post the Server Monetization thing on the website?" Jeb asks.

"Sure thing, sir," Owen replies.

Let's fast forward to a day after June 12th. June 13th – The day when people start to protest. Or was that the day before? I'd assume the 13th. I don't really know anymore.

"Save Minecraft!" a Minecraft player types into chat on a huge server.

"Stop the EULA changes from happening! #SaveMinecraft!" says another player.

"Is this all really a good idea, Jeb? We're already having players complaining," I say.

"We'll post a follow-up question and answers about server monetization on June 16th," Jeb answers.

"Will Minecraft players treat this with respect?" I ask him.

"Probably not. We can take away their Minecraft account if they don't want to follow the EULA though," Jeb replies.

"Shouldn't we give them a grace period?" I ask Jeb.

Jeb thinks for a while. Probably about 2 minutes. He later replies. "The grace period will be until August 1st."

Now let's fast forward a month later. July 13th, 2014. About 6 days ago.

"#SaveMinecraft" is being tweeted all over Twitter.

Many people are talking about how Minecraft is going to die down.

"Sir, how will we deal with all of these threats?" I ask him.

"I will send the lawyers. Servers failing to comply with the EULA by August 1st will be terminated or sued," Jeb replies.

"Are you sure, sir? If you haven't noticed already, quite a few of the players on (a big server) and (another big server) are complaining," I ask him, just to clarify.

"Yes. Yes I am," Jeb answers.

August 1st is the Friday after next Friday.

After that, perks must only be cosmetic.

#SaveMinecraft

Note: This is just how I'm thinking of the EULA situation right now, I honestly don't think Jeb is that mean.


End file.
